Should a country which has no organised structure for women's football and where women's football is hardly played participate in FIFA's World Cup qualifying tournament?
FIFA qualified referee and former technical director of the National Association of Women's Football Gerald Laurie thinks not.
"It would be like sending them to the slaughter," Laurie said in an exclusive interview with Stabroek Sports adding,"someone must look at the safety and future of our young girls."
Laurie thinks that the time is much too short to prepare a team for the tournament which runs from December 6-10 in Antigua and suggests that the GFF rethink their decision to participate in the tournament.
Preparation
Laurie argues that the type of preparation needed to get a squad in shape for the tournament simply cannot take place in two weeks.
He charged that many of the girls would not have their muscles properly developed in the two-week time frame.
Secondly, Laurie opined that the players will not be able to accomplish the tasks of mastering the techniques for proper ball control, passing, receiving, heading and shooting.
"Again, that cannot be accomplished in two weeks time," he reiterated.
Thirdly, Laurie said the tactical knowledge of the game with respect to the individual functions and decision making of players was of too complex a nature to be mastered in the time frame mentioned.
"You have to be familiar with the game, have a basic knowledge or grasp of the fundamentals of the game in order to be able to assimilate a coach's perspective on tactical plays, Laurie stated.
Harm
Laurie said that in order to participate in the tournament, the GFF must seek players who are around the ages of 16-17. All the players participating in the tournament must be under 19 years of age when the final is played next year, he said.
With such young players, Laurie said a rigorous training regimen might do them more harm than good since the players will need time to rest in order to recuperate their muscles.
The players, he pointed out also needed to be au fait with the laws of the game.
Coach
Laurie said to the best of his knowledge there is no one with experience in coaching women footballers in Guyana and as such the situation would be one of an inexperienced women's coach teaching inexperienced women footballers a situation, he felt, was a perfect recipe for disaster.
"A coach has to be able to have a relationship with the players individually. Women are different from men. The players also need to develop confidence in the coach, which again cannot happen in two weeks," he said.
Organised football
Laurie said he knows of no organised women's football being played in Guyana at the moment.
However, there was a women's league a few years ago which he started.
Laurie said the National Association of Women's Football was formed in 1995 and a women's league featuring teams from sub-associations such as Georgetown, Linden, Berbice, East Coast and Bartica was started.
"We used to go around the country and play each other, " said Laurie, who said his intention was to make women's football one of the most popular sports here.
Laurie said the league was stopped because of the lack of interest shown by the ruling body.
He said the women's association never received assistance from the GFF and a tour of Barbados by a women's team which was later reciprocated resulted from fund raising events including a walk-a-thon.
Requests for balls from the GFF were never entertained, he alleges.
FIFA encourages women's football Laurie said, however, despite the GFF's seeming lack of interest in promoting the development of women's football here,
FIFA encourages the development of women's football by national associations who are given monies to help in the development of the sport.
Laurie said a perfect example of the growth of women's football can be found in neighbouring Suriname.
"Suriname in a few short years now has over 30 female football, clubs. All the female clubs in Suriname received equipment from the Suriname Football Association which spent US$70,000 to do so,"
Laurie declared.
But secretary of the Guyana Football Federation said yesterday that there was never adequate time.
"What the GFF tries to do is to maximise the limited amount of time that we have to achieve whatever is our objective."
Concerning the fact that there is no organised women's football competition run by the GFF, Rutherford said a distinction needed to be made between the GFF and Guyana. He said while it is true that the GFF is guilty of not running tournaments for women footballers there are football tournaments for women run in Lethem, Kwakwani and Upper Demerara.
Rutherford said the GFF has held trials in Lethem on Wednesday and in Linden last week-end.
A squad is to be encamped from Sunday at Buxton. No head coach has been appointed but Ethlyn Bynoe and Romaine Ferreira have been named assistant coaches.
Rutherford said it was also not accurate to say that FIFA gives grant specifically for the development of women's football.
He said FIFA boss Sepp Blatter is very much concerned about the
low level of women footballers and would encourage national associations like Guyana to assist in promoting the development of women's football.
Concerning the team's preparation Rutherford was optimistic that the team will be ready for the tournament.he said most of the training will be done at the Buxton ground and declared, "we're going to give it our best shot."